McNally stays upbeat

A STAFF REPORTER

Khaitan: Growth focus

Calcutta, Dec. 17: McNally Bharat Engineering of the Williamson Magor group is expecting a 10 per cent growth in revenues this fiscal at Rs 2,200 crore. The engineering firm also expects a three-fold jump in new orders to Rs 4,000 crore from Rs 1,300 crore last year.

“Our order book size should be Rs 4,000 crore even in this very difficult environment,” said Deepak Khaitan, chairman of McNally Bharat.

He said the company was looking for technology partners in areas such as port, material handling equipment and pumps.

“McNally Bharat’s weakness is technology. We are in talks with four to five companies for technology alliance or to form joint ventures. We are not looking at buying technology firms. With their support, we will qualify for more contracts. We are talking to companies that provide technology support in port area and in material handling equipment such as heavy duty fork lift trucks and pumps,” Khaitan said.

The new orders are mainly in the areas of infrastructure, industrial construction, oil refineries and buildings, both residential and commercial.

“Going forward, our thrust area will be cement. There are a lot of opportunities with the cement industry expected to switch over to the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode,” P.K. Chandra, whole time director and chief operating officer, said.

McNally has already bagged a Rs 733-crore EPC contract from ACC Ltd to set up a 9,000 tonnes per day brownfield production facility at the cement manufacturer’s existing plant at Jamul, Chhattisgarh.